Clark Griswold Pfundtner and Getting Ready for Christmas

Three little elves stopped by to give us a hand the other day. It was time to start getting ready for Christmas. We store all of our red and green supply totes stacked up out in the garage. So these little elves started carrying things out of the garage, and around to the front of the house. Some of them are outdoor decorations and some of them are indoor. It was up to me to check each tote and see where it had to go. How wonderful to have these little elves haul everything out for us? The biggest helper elf Chelsea helped commandeer the loads.

Little Clayton elf decided it was better to haul the really heavy things on the red wagon. Since all of our snow melted last week, he was still able to roll the wagon around and down the sidewalk. I suppose if there had been snow on the ground, he would have grabbed a sled. "Work smarter not harder" he says!

Littlest elf Claire was very excited about hauling the snowman. Because they are lightweight, she could handle those on her own. Then oldest elf Chelsea trudged back and forth hauling the heavier items and was really appreciated as being the organizer of the activity.

Little Claire found Rudolph. Even though he was kind of a large for her, she managed to bring him all the way from the garage and up the stairs to the front porch.  This is a newer holiday acquisition, so he needed a special new spot for the outside decoration. She got to decide where he needs to go.

Now came the biggest project! The tree! 

Last year we had seen a Pinterest idea to wrap your entire decorated Christmas tree (lights ornaments and all) with wide pallet strapping plastic. Round and round and round we went. Then we were able to carry it out the door in one complete piece and store it the garage for the entire year. The only problem was that it takes up a lot of valuable space in the garage. Instead of being disassembled in individual totes, and undecorated like normal, we stored it that way all summer long. But it was in the way of Steve's other workshop projects.  I don't think we'll do that again this year. I think we will reduce things back to their original totes and packaging. But it was a good idea and we thought we would try it.

All three of the little elves helped Grandpa carry the bound up tree around from the garage, down the driveway, across the sidewalk, and up the front steps. I held the door open and whoosh, and it came!!!

The grandkids were wondering how the Grinch did it so easily by pushing a full tree up the chimney? This was a really tough job to carry a full tree into the house. They were exhausted!!!

I had to revive them with the promise of hot cocoa. They jumped back into action and started to carefully cut away the plastic from around the tree, without cutting any important lighting wires or ornaments underneath the plastic.

Before the plastic was even completely removed, Clayton got right to work underneath the tree, finding the cord and plugging it in.  Our LED lights are on a remote control with 8 different variations of lights, changing colors, or all white, flashing or not.  They love to play with the remotes and change it from time to time.  So does Steve. It's his "thing". 

The other problem with wrapping up the tree is that all the ends of the branches get bent and curved inwards. It took quite a while to push and pull and rearrange each of the branches to point outwards again. Then of course we had to rearrange the ornaments so they would hang decently. I think it was just as much work to redo the tree as it was to originally decorate it from scratch. So I don't think we will do this method again at the end of this season. 

We also corralled up all of my little horsey ornaments and arranged them across the mantle with some matching lit up garland.  These are some of my favorite and most memorable ornaments. 

So far, the inside of the house is pretty well decorated except for the Christmas village. The grandkids are going to come back and do that because we ran out of time, and plain and simple, it was Grandma and Grandpa who both ran out of energy!

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Even though it was pretty cold and windy out last Sunday, we decided to decorate the front of the house and get up all of our exterior decorations and lights. We figured we might as well get it done before the snow flies. Even though it was the very end of November, we usually wait until December to do this. But we happened to have one good day to "git 'er dun". 

This year we went one step further and permanently installed some nice white rubber coated metal hooks across the entire front porch. Now we can put the same garlands of lights in the same spots every year and not have to mess with staples or nails or wire ties. It will be much easier to decorate in future years. We had done this on the house in Chilton too, and it sure made it easy. Because they are small and white, the hooks are not really noticeable throughout the summer months.

We unpacked the totes and started our outside décor.  

I enjoy wrapping all of the porch columns like great big peppermint sticks! Three years ago the grandkids helped me make these great stars out of cheap plastic Dollar Tree hangers and a hot glue gun with some pretty sparkly sequins. Later on, I also tied them down at the bottom to the railing so they don't blow around too much in the upcoming gusting winter winds.

here is how to make them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW9m-6mSntc

So here's the front of the house pretty well decorated for the winter. It's the same way we've done it the last two christmases. And I kind of like it. I also added more peppermint stripe ribbons to the stair railings and also to the entrance over by the pergola to the she shed, not in this photo.

Now that we got all the decorating done, 

it's time for "Clark Griswold Pfundtner" 

 to take over...

The outdoor garland lights end up being plugged into three different timers so that way we are avoiding having any cords crossing the walking areas to create a tripping hazard. Now it's time for Clark to get all the lights functioning and repair any burnt out sections or fuses, he also needs to get these timers set correctly. It really bugs him if one section of lights goes on or off before the others. At the magic hour of 4:30 p.m. as it is dusk, he wants them all to go on with a flourish... at the same time!

Steve is even wearing the same gloves and hat as Clark! 

With some tweaking and fiddling over the next few days, he finally has them synchronized to go on perfectly and also light up the two little snowmen out in the front by the bird bath. Yes, my Clark Griswold Pfundtner has the Christmas Spirit deep in his heart. Awwwwww.

~~~~~~~~

During this past week, I've added a few other things here and there throughout the house, including the little Family fiber optic tree. It's a Family Tree because there's an ornament on there for every member of our extended family. It's fun when they come to visit to search and hunt around until they find their name.

It's pretty cool at night

right in front of the dining room windows. 

My little wooden toy soldier is on guard by the front door. Along with the ring of Jingle Bells on the doorknob. I got this soldier many years ago from a co-worker when I sold real estate in Green Bay. He was also a woodworker and made it for me for a Christmas present in our Holiday Office Exchange. It's one of those precious things that I hang on to year after year. 

The bells give  a familiar festive chiming sound

each time the door is opened.

I line up these adorable old-fashioned jumping jacks on magnets for the grandkids to play with. They are stuck to the side of the refrigerator. That way they can play with them and line them up and rearrange them. One year I tried hanging them on the tree and they couldn't pull on the bottom strings to make them jump without upsetting the tree. It worked out much better for inquisitive little munchkins to play with them in an easily accessible area.

I just love old fashioned type ornaments and silly play things for the kids.

This creative little tree in my kitchen is metal and the ornaments are magnetic. They can be rearranged and it is strung with little tiny LED seed lights that flash and glow in alternating patterns. The grandkids have dubbed this the Grinch Tree because it looks like something right out of Dr Seuss. It's one of those trees that they can play with or rearrange every time they come over to visit. One year, some of the grandkids gave me the cute little sign hanging overhead. That makes sense doesn't it?

We put the silly little Charlie Brown Tree in the middle of the table in the kitchen. It's something that they can rearrange the ornaments and play with. They laugh about it, because it's so spindly and awkward and ugly, but cute in its own way.

After my mom passed away last year, I asked my stepdad to pick out a couple little things that were mom's holiday favorites to send to me that I could keep for year after year. He sent me a whole bunch of her Nutcracker collection. I distributed them among all of the grandchildren so everybody got a large nutcracker. I kept these six little tiny ones for myself. I line them up to stand guard in this window sill. I smile every time I see them and think of my mom.

Sitting next to the fireplace is our holiday story bear in his sleigh with all of the Christmas books. It's great to cuddle up with a couple grandkids at a time and read Christmas stories--- especially the vintage ones from Little Golden Books like Rudolph and Jingle Bells. Of course we always read the traditional Night Before Christmas too.

20 plus some years ago a fellow fiber friend in my spinning guild made me this cut out fret work paper tree in the middle of my dining room table. It is of the Twelve Days of Christmas! She made it herself with an exacto blade and cut it out from sturdy cardstock. The top of course is the partridge, the next row down has two turtle doves, three french hens, etc. I carefully fold it up and put it away each year. It's been on the center of my dining table every year since she made it for me. I also found the wonderful peppermint stick striped candles this year when shopping with my friend Vicky. We will burn them during special meals throughout the holiday season, and maybe put them out year after year depending on how far down they get burnt.

Besides needing the kids to assemble the Christmas Village inside of my china hutch, I think I am pretty much done. We have completed most of our Christmas shopping and I just have a little bit more wrapping to do. I'm still not quite feeling up to snuff yet.  I am feeling pretty good so far recovering from whatever this long illness has been.  Next we can work on Christmas cards and making cookies.  But for now, we can sit back and enjoy the season...

And if you are in the area, stop on in! 

I think it's time to crank up the Christmas music,

 sit back with a cup of cocoa and tiny marshmallows 

and take a little break.

~~~Bring on the holidays~~~

Santa Came Early

Santa came early, with a little bit of help from us.

Steve and I have gotten to the point where we really don't need any personal items to buy for each other for Christmas. We kind of run out of ideas after all of these years together. We have each other, what more do we need?  LOL

So rather than a gift certificate or another box of stuff or something we don't really need... so we decided that we would pick one item together that we wanted to do for the house as an update or upgrade that we really didn't necessarily need. But it had to be something that we would want... and enjoy.  One year we did a set of big fluffy bath towels. Another year some fancy new cookware.

We had discussed for some time about replacing the electric hot water heater that was here when we bought the house. Although it's pretty new, from 2015, it is rather pricey to operate. We know just by putting it on a Wi-Fi timer, we knocked the bill down an extra 20 bucks a month by just having it operate at certain times of the day and not round the clock for 24 hours. 

It also takes quite a while for it to recover... such as if Steve takes a shower or we run the dishwasher, it takes quite a bit of time for it to recover to either run a load of laundry or for me to take a bath. So we have to kind of stagger our use and schedule ourselves for what we want to do in the evening as it pertains to hot water usage.

We have decided we wanted to switch over to a natural gas water heater. The only problem is with the chimney closed off, we can not put in a normal one that is vented.  We would have to get what's called a power vent model. With the shortened ceiling height in the basement, our choices were limited of what type of power vent models,  because they are quite tall and they vent horizontally out the side of a house through the foundation. The only two that we could find the right height and of any quality with the power vent option were rather pricey in the $800 to $1,000 range.

Well, if we were going to do that, we might as well just get the new tankless on demand variety for about the same money. They are also vented out the side wall,  but smaller and more compact. 

We have been doing some research on the tankless on demand systems. Plus, you're not paying to keep your water hot 24 hours around the clock. It only heats the water just as you're using it at any of the faucets. This made sense to us.

Also, with the recirculating pump feature, with a return line, we can keep hot water up to the faucets where you want it,  not wasting any cold water running down the drain, waiting for the warm water to reach the faucet. Especially in our bathroom, which is the furthest from the water heater location. Right now we waste a LOT of running water waiting for the hot to reach the shower, tub or sink. 

We had done some research a couple months ago. It kind of put it on the back burner. We had other things to do.

But now that the holidays were coming, we sat down in November and decided that maybe this would be a good Christmas present to each other. It's something we both would enjoy and appreciate. 

We did our research and figured which model would be best for us according to our usage and also for the temperature of the cold water coming in. Northern states have cold ground where the piped city water comes into the house. It needs more energy to heat it up to the 120 degrees at the faucet. So we factored in with all the charts and graphs and figured everything out for the correct model of BTUs and flow of gallons per minute.  The one we wanted wasn't in stock, so it had to be ordered. We placed our order in early November. They said it would arrive by December 12th.

Of course, our shipping date of December 12th came and went ---- and we got a notice that will be another three and a half weeks due to vendor shipping complications. Well well well, of course who wouldn't be surprised at that? And even then, there is no guarantee that we will get that particular model. 

So we went back to Menards today with our ordered paid receipt, we were able to cancel that order and get a full refund. Then we took the next model higher that was already IN stock in the store. It just happened to go on sale today and at an additional $250 off. (we knew that because we saw the ad on Sunday) which brings it down to almost the same price, as the one we had perviously ordered and cancelled. So lucky us! It had more BTUs and a higher GPM flow rate while maintaining the same temp setting with multiple faucets running at the same time. 

Steve was soooo happy! We hoisted the box in the Saturn along with all of Steve's extra materials and supplies for installation. 

We got it home and he had to right away roll it into the house and get it unboxed so he could look it all over.

It weighs 90 lbs, so we used this little furniture dolly cart to get it into the house. 

Later on we will beg one of our sons-in-laws to help carry it down through the bulkhead entrance to the basement, over the secret passageway wall from the new basement to the old basement area and over in to place where he can mount it on the wall and do all of the hookups.

Weeks ago, Steve had me print off the installation booklets from the PDF files on the website, so he knew exactly all the features and details and what he needed to do.

He sure looked like a little boy on Christmas morning, spread out on the floor in front of the Christmas tree with our new Christmas present. Kind of like a little kid setting up his toy train?

I get such a kick out of him. He opened up each box and each piece and each accessory, checking things over once and twice. He had to make sure everything was there and everything operated correctly. Nothing can be worse than to be setting something up and find out there's a manufacturing defect in a valve or some fitting is missing or it's the wrong size. He's pretty smart when it comes to putting together things like this. It's his good form of entertainment, just like some people like doing crosswords or jigsaw puzzles.

Here are all of his extra accessories he bought. He already has the vent termination kit mounted in the wall weeks ago when the weather was nice. Having to bust our way through two feet of heavy fieldstone is crazy. Instead he found the perfect location for the heater right by an old hole that had been chiseled through for a dryer vent from many years ago. It was the perfect location and it suited our needs for the concentric (2 layer) horizontal exhaust vent.  

He also picked up pipe insulation,  extra valves and fittings and pieces and supplies.  It's always better to buy more than you need, and return the rest,  than to be short in the middle of the installation. 

So that is our "Merry Christmas" to us, our HO HO HO extravagant present. 

We really didn't need a new water heater, but also having the convenience of on demand as well as lower energy bills is an added plus. 

We read that electric water heaters really only last six to nine years, and we are already on the sixth year of this one here. We can maybe sell it to someone who wants it for a hunting cabin somewhere or a little cottage or maybe a rental unit. It has life left in it, and I would like to see it used again rather than just going to a landfill. 

~~~~~~~~~

We were very fortunate last week to be invited to FOUR different Christmas concerts for our grandchildren! We are blessed to be able to live this close to attend them throughout the day. 

They were scheduled at different times with an hour and a half to two hours in between each concert. That way each of the grades group together for each audience size that could fill the gymnasium comfortably, instead of trying to pack in all of the parents for all of the elementary grade levels. That just wouldn't work.

At 9 a.m. was the 4K and kindergarten concert. Littlest granddaughter Claire was on the risers, searching eagerly to spot her parents and grandparents in the audience. Her face brightened up and she gave me a big wave when she saw us. It was delightful. They sang their 3 little songs and we applauded and praised her for doing a good job.

Then we had about an hour left in between until it was time for the first and second graders. Now it was Whitney's turn to come out and sing her songs! We took Claire along with us so she could see her cousin. We joined up with our daughter Heather and watched the wonderful show from the first and second graders. Whitney also scanned the audience until she saw our faces and brightened right up, secure in knowing that we were there for her.

In between the first and second grade concert and later the third and fourth grade concert, we were able to meet up with Whitney by the lunch room and get in a nice big hug!

At 1:30 p.m. that was time for the 3rd and 4th graders. Clayton, in the blue Christmas sweater, was searching the audience row by row until he saw us. Then he brightened up and gave a little indiscreet wave with the flick of his hand and a little twiddle of the fingers. He had to be "cool", you know, and not wave frantically like some of the other children were doing. They sang a really pretty song that I hadn't heard before. It was a Celtic tune called The Masters In This Hall.

The daytime concerts were done at the elementary school. We were able to go home, take a break, make up some supper and rest for a while. Especially to rest our sore butts. Sitting on those metal folding chairs with our old people butts for a couple hours on end today. We were kind of sore. After supper, it was time to head over to the middle school now for our last concert of the day. Our sixth-grader granddaughter Chelsea plays the clarinet in the Middle School band. We found our seats along with her parents and brother and sister in the gymnasium at the middle school. We waved and we shouted her name but she had to act "so cool" and pretend that she didn't see us at all. They played their beautiful songs, with their abilities of only a few months worth of instrument practice. They did quite well. On the way out, I snapped this pic of Chelsea with her clarinet, (AKA licorice stick). Just like her grandmother, yes me, I played the clarinet in the band too. Chip off the old block. Her mother had also played the alto clarinet. Runs in the family!!

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After the concerts on Thursday, we all made it home safe and sound but there was a big storm a-brewing. The weather man's dire predictions of terrible freezing rain, sleet, wind, and then heavy wet snow were pretty ominous.

It started up on Friday and ended up with quite an amazing view by Saturday morning! Yep, we got dumped with between 9 to 10 in of this beautiful white heavy wet snow!!

Everything was like a winter wonderland outside, but poor little Binney couldn't even walk in it to go to the bathroom. She would just get stuck. Steve quick grabbed the shovel and dug out a a little area just in her potty yard so she could do her business.

As soon as she was done, she was plaintively looking through the French door to get right back in the house. AWWWWWW

Steve shoveled his way across the pergola to the garage door. Look how beautiful the snow mounded up as it blew from the sides against the latticework and ivy of the pergola.

Everything was clinging heavy with snow. This is the lilac bush along side of the house. It was so dainty and lacy. Like a beautiful winter snowflake plopped in the ground. 

I just couldn't believe how much the wind had blown between the house and the garage... hard enough to plaster the snow so tight against the lattice--- it sure made a beautiful decoration.

The backyard was absolutely amazing, looking out over the white snow as the wind was blowing. We were very fortunate not to have any power outages. North of us, south of us, and just over on the edge of the bay, people have lost power for hours or even the next day into Sunday afternoon. We were lucky. 

But even if the power we did go out, we do have two natural gas fireplaces that do not require electricity to run, so at least we wouldn't freeze. If we really needed to we can cook things or warm up the motor home or run the generator from the motorhome and run a cord back to the house if we really needed something. Fortunately, we did not have to employ any power outage procedures.

In the afternoon it finally stopped snowing so Steve decided to get out the snow blower and start taking care of moving some of it out of the way. It was very wet and heavy so he had to do a half-swatch at a time so he didn't plug up the snowblower.

And amazingly, they are forecasting weather here up into the high 50s on Thursday, maybe even record-breaking hitting 60°? So a lot of this may melt.

Things are beginning to look very Christmassy around here. To continue on from my last blog post, we did decide to put the tree up in the She Shed. Once we got it up into place, Steve helped with all of the lights and decorations. We had a very nice time decorating the tree together during the snowstorm. With Christmas music playing and mugs of mulled apple cider, it was really getting into the holiday season around here.

I set up the little Christmas Village in the china hutch, with all of my little houses and people and bridges and choo choo train. This is a great place to put it where it's out of the way but yet it can be admired through the glass and not susceptible to Little Fingers playing with all the people.

I do let the kids play with these decorations.  They are vintage looking wooden jumping jack toys.  I hang them on the little magnetic clips on the side of the refrigerator so they can be played with and put back in a row and be part of the decor.

Yup, they found em! 

Steve enhanced our holiday decorating by mounting our Merry Christmas sign up in the space over in the transom area above the French doors we just installed last month. Next month, after all the holiday events are done, I'm going to work on some stained glass that's going to fill the space. But for now, it was perfect to mount that Christmas sign in there. Great idea, Steve.

I got a little whimsical and silly too. My Wee Peggy Spinning Wheel needed to get decorated for the season. Hohoho!

You've heard of Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly? 

Well I decided to Deck the LOOM with Boughs of Holly!

My friend Rosie in Bethel Missouri, has strung Christmas lights all over her beautiful Glimakra loom. I admired them when I was visiting her, and she said she leaves them up year-round. Every now and then she plugs them in just for a little whimsical smile. So in honor of Rosie and her loom decorating, I decided to doll up my Kangas Loom with some hanging boughs of holly and berries, a clump of poinsettia plants and Christmas flowers along with some colorful lights. I put it on a timer so it will go on each evening to fill the She Shed with holiday spirit.

We did a few other things around the house since my last blog post. We hung all of these cute little dainty snowflakes over all of the doorways. Steve painstakingly stood on a ladder, using a ruler and measuring every 8 inches apart, to tack into place with little push pins. The Christmas Decorating Spirit is running really high in my Elf Steve.

The reindeer games started in our backyard. Each evening about dusk, we get this little gathering that seem to think that there must be something good underneath our bird feeder. There's just a little bit of seeds scattered here and there, and I know the birds really picked through it. Especially the mourning doves. I can't imagine there being a lot left over for them to eat. But they congregate here anyhow and play their reindeer games.

Now you know why we had to protect all of our new trees that we planted this summer. Every tree is surrounded with six foot high fencing and sturdy steel posts. Let's hope it keeps these hungry little buggers away from our tender tree branches of our new apple, cherry, willow, and maple trees. And especially our new burr oak tree that was planted in memory of my Mom.

Speaking of mom, December 11th was her birthday. Getting through all of those "first" holidays without a certain loved one after they've passed away is extremely hard.

I'm doing the best that I can.